Might Have Been
by sleepykit
Summary: One middle of the night meeting, and suddenly he's Hokage and hunting for a nighttime creep. Everything else is small potatoes. R
1. What Might Have Been

Complete and total rambling...Nothing important here. Obviously I don't own Naruto or any characters therein.

**What Might Have Been...**

He didn't know at what point he stopped searching, but sometime after he'd seen those empty eyes, Naruto finally went his own way. He had lost a friend to the snake-man, and what the monster had molded Sasuke into, it wasn't the same person anymore. It wasn't just about the strength or the constant pledge of revenge; some spark inside had gone missing, and Naruto knew it. He had his own to contend with, after all.

So he left the village because who would _want_ to stay in a town that could only hope to hate, or at best ignore. He would never be liked, and knowing it, the blond man picked up his things and went the other way. He wasn't a genin anymore, he could hold his own in the world well enough, and though that loss hurt almost as bad Sasuke, he walked onwards into the sunset.

They say it takes something to grow up. You wake up one day, and the world is crystal clear before your eyes. The teenager who harbored a fox demon inside had to laugh at this—his revelations usually came at night, by the light of the moon, right around the time his fire refused to light for the fourth time. He used to hate the villagers for their sneers, but as he sat there, that night, before the logs that just wouldn't burst into flames, he thought he didn't anymore. Hate was too strong a word and reserved, it seemed, for Sasuke and his brother.

"Damn it!" he muttered, looking dejected, and unrolled his sleeping bag.

Slipping inside still fully dressed because it was late fall and the nights turned chilly fast, he closed his eyes and slept. Let Sasuke battle it out with the village hidden among the leaves, let the brothers stare each other down through eternity. He was done. Sakura complained about it sometimes, when they saw each other every so often—she didn't let him disappear—but she did it gently.

Last time she had tried the oldest tactic. They had been sitting together on a grassy hill a few miles from town. It had been one of those sunny days early in the spring when the cool breeze still meant something.

"You should forgive him, you know," she said.

"Done!"

The pink haired teen frowned and looked at him with those wide, eyes. "You're lying, and I can tell."

He threw his hands up in the air, glad he was eighteen and she couldn't drag him back to the hokage by force. "It's true."

She had gotten over the raven-haired ninja long ago, at some point between becoming a medic and finding love in someone else's arms. Naruto didn't pry because he didn't honestly want to know, but he wasn't blind either.

"You should find him, for your own peace of mind."

The puzzled teen raised one eyebrow. "I don't care anymore, Sakura. I am not going to say the bastard broke my heart because he, in fact, did not. Yeah, it'd be super nice if he got off his high horse and realize what he did, but what are the odds?"

"I've never seen you give up before."

Naruto shrugged and stared at the ground. "Is it still giving up if he's gone?"

She would never know the answer to that, no matter how often the blond asked, and that day proved no different. That had been nearly eight months ago, and he hadn't come back since then. It wasn't any fear of Sakura that kept him at bay so much as guilt. Was it really giving up?

Out of nowhere, a voice said, "Wake up, idiot!"

This sounded a little too familiar and not at all like his dreams, so of course, blue eyes popped up open and stared up into the night, into a park of red ones. _Laugh or cry_ thought the blond man's befuddled brain. Wouldn't matter either way.

"Bastard!" it was the first word out of his mouth. The second turned out to be no better. "Fuck!"

Three in the morning, and the pale Uchiha was smiling. "Good morning to you, too."

He wasn't wearing the snake's uniform, nor anything out of Leaf. Nope, for once the clothes were truly nondescript, not even a family insignia to grace them, and no headband either. He was holding a kunai in one hand but at least it wasn't at anyone's throat, yet. Just Sasuke, of the plain old, human variety.

"What in the name of the nine demons do you want?" Not quite a curse, but he wasn't a believer.

"Your help."

That had the blue-eyed teen up and in a defensive stance in under two seconds, all thoughts of sleep pushed to the farthest corners of the universe. He watched the raven for a moment longer before relaxing. Standing not ten feet apart, the two were taller—adults now where once they had been children—and so vastly different.

Naruto sighed and glared at the non-starter fire once more. "Since when have you ever needed anyone's help?"

"Orochimaru." Sasuke reached out with one thin finger, and the logs began to burn.

"Didn't you eat him or something?"

The dark one sighed in exasperation. "Or something."

"Well, fuck."

"You could start by asking what I want," suggested the missing ninja with a ghost of a smile.

"All right, I'm game. It's the middle of the night, supposedly no one knows where I am, and here you stand. So, what the hell do you want?"

By the light of the newly fixed fire, the raven looked too thin, the clothe strangely loose on a frame that had never been anything if not willowy. There were circles under his eyes, and he carried no backpack and thus no supplies. Naruto reached into his own stash and pulled out a can of stew.

"I'd like your assistance in exterminating a ghost."

The blonde empted its contents into a pot and stuck it over the fire. "No such thing."

"Not literally, you moron." Dark eyes focused on the blonde. "It's an assassin, a shadow walker."

"And you need my help why?"

The dark one laughed, then coughed a few times as his lungs protested. "I don't need it."

"Then why..." His voice trailed away, the word game suddenly clear. "You want it. Not a requirement, but..."

"Yeah."

The soup warmed up enough to eat, and Naruto poured it into two bowls, handed one to Sasuke. "Eat." He frowned. "Why me?"

"According to the hokage, you're the best the leaf village has. More to the point, you've been drifting aimlessly. This should prove a nice change."

"You spoke to her?"

The shorter of the two boys nodded. "In a manner of speaking."

Naruto shrugged and ate the rest of his food in silence, watching his companion do the same. This wasn't the Sasuke he remembered, but it also wasn't the boy out to kill his brother. This was something new and entirely different, or as he was starting to suspect, the first sparks of what should have been. What might have been...


	2. Leaves of Konoha

Seeing as how I didn't expect this story to get past chapter one, I'm not sure where it's going or how it plans to get there.

...

**The Leaves of Konoha**

He hadn't seen the village for a while, a self-imposed exile, but suffice to say it hadn't changed much while he'd been away. _Wasn't that one of the reasons he left in the first place?_ Frowning, he jumped off the last tree branch and landed on the ground, relieved it was so very steady and solid. Three days of travel through marshes and swamps, and demons know what, and he was beginning to appreciate why even the Anbu walked sometimes.

"I'm not so sure I wanted to come back here," he said mildly and shifted the weight of the backpack on his shoulders. After a moment, he turned to the silent raven. "Why the heck are we here, exactly? I am hard pressed to believe Konoha would need any help with assassins. Don't they train them by the dozen?"

"They do," was the reply, and it remained to be seen what question it actually answered.

Naruto growled and threw a punch in Sasuke's general direction, not needing to look anymore to know where his opponent was standing. The other dodged, but not nearly as fast as he might've on a better day, and the blue-eyed teen had plenty of time to land a second on his rival's shoulder, gently though. He didn't need to be told to know something was wrong.

"Are you all right?"

"It can wait."

Dark eyes watched him for a moment before the raven started walking in the direction of the village, and his sunny companion was forced to follow or be left behind. They hadn't exactly talked during the trip because with Sasuke you didn't do heart to heart talks, not unless he was about to join the land of the dead.

It was nearing midday and the doors of the leaf village stood open for all to enter. Between the browning leaves scattered of the ground and the bitter wind that pulled at his clothes, Naruto was almost looking forward to a warm bed at some inn—sleeping on the ground only looked noble for about a day before it got old. Catching your own dinner lost its charm shortly thereafter.

The two guards who manned the booth just inside the entrance were different, and the blonde didn't recognize them off hand, not that it mattered because they seemed to know him just fine. He smiled, waved back, and kept walking. The raven ignored them completely.

"Shouldn't they be trying to stop you or something?" Naruto asked, walking just a tad closer to his "friend". "Last I checked, you were on their short list."

Sasuke shrugged expressively. "They have orders."

"From who?"

Again, the silence, and the blue-eyed one wanted to know what kind of games everyone was playing. He spotted others watching their progress, perched on rooftops and balconies—his fourteen-year-old self would have never known—and counted at least fifteen. _A full out welcoming committee_. He wondered which of them deserved that honor. In the top room of the largest tower in the village he was quickly told that the onlookers and their stares were meant for him.

...

Sakura met them at the door to the village leader's office. She was still her cheerful bubbly self, the same one who would could get angry in under a minute and smash your face a good three feet through the ground. Naruto winced at the painful memory and wisely kept his mouth shut. He looked around the familiar room, the old desk overflowing with paperwork, the annoying pig sitting in the corner. It was almost like the "good" old times, almost...

"Hokage," he said once everyone was inside, and it come out as a respectful greeting.

He used to call the old woman Granny and make fun of her age; this was about the same time he enjoyed bouncing off walls and screwing with Sasuke's hair.

The woman behind the desk leaned back in her chair and nodded once. "I see you've learned a few manners." Tsunade smiled. "Welcome back, Naruto Uzumaki."

The use of his last name puzzled him—usually he had to be in a lot of trouble before anyone pulled that card out of their sleeve. He couldn't remember doing anything that would bring ire to the village recently; he hadn't stayed any place long enough for people to figure out his name, much less that he hailed from the fire country.

"All right, drop the act. What the hell's going on around here?" The blonde frowned. "Or better yet, just tell me about this ghost problem so I can be done with this mission and out of your hair. I'm assuming everything's been peachy since I left."

The hokage sighed as though bored and raised up one hand in a time-out gesture. "I had Sasuke bring you here for two purposes, and you're going to forgive him for not telling you the whole truth."

"OK, who are you and what did you do with the real Granny? The one who, you know, put his name in the 'dangerous ninja to kill on sight' book..." The blonde grinned at Sasuke. "Forgiven, not that you care."

Sakura giggled, then tried to look serious. Even Sasuke, who clearly knew a lot more than he let on, was smirking. Watching them, the blonde felt an urge to jump out the nearest window and climb someplace too high for the others to reach. He considered taking the raven with him, if said ninja wanted to come along.

"Indeed. If you can stand still for another five minutes, I can perhaps explain."

Blue eyes narrowed. "Fine."

"Let's talk about the mission first, then. We have become aware of a ninja who has been hunting within the fire country's borders. In terms of power, he or she is perhaps on the same level as the leader of the Akatsuki though we have verified that the newcomer travels alone."

The old woman opened a book that lay on her desk and read from it. "Thus far, he—and we can only assume the gender because we have not been able to get close enough—travels only by night and sleeps during the day. Of three villages he has visited since we began patrolling here, he had killed as many people."

"Well, that certainly doesn't say much."

Tsunade nodded once and put the book away. "I have my suspicions about what this means, but since he has taken out every patrol we've sent, I'd like Sasuke to look into it, and he has apparently invited you along."

Naruto nodded once, understanding. "Is that all?"

"For you, no."

She rose then and walked around to the front of the desk, and the blond man was reminded just how old the hokage really was. She hid it with power, but time still took its toll on her body and while she looked no older, he suspected the appearance mislead. She had to be as old as his pervert teacher and the snake-man; both were dead.

"There has been a lot of discussion about who will lead this village now that I have officially resigned," Tsunade explained.

"So what? I'm sure there are a lot of people in Konoha who are more than capable of doing the job."

He thought of friends and enemies alike, teens from his own class and their first-rate teachers. He remembered them now as wise and understanding or else his own age and just as eager to live. Shikamaru stood out as a tactician who could outsmart the devil himself.

"There are," she said agreeably, "but can you guess how many of them want the position?"

Naruto smirked and ran a hand through his short curls. "No one." _How many have you asked, now that's what I want to know._

"And we have a winner!" The woman laughed softly. "I asked Sasuke to retrieve you in order to ask if you would be interested."

"Me?"

She nodded. "At fourteen you were too damn stupid to even consider for something like this. But, you're almost nineteen now and, if the reports of your friends are to be believed, more than capable."

"Friends?"

"I've done my research, Uzumaki, and we will leave it at that."

"Fuck!"

The blonde knew he said it, but whether he meant it as a curse or something else entirely remained to be seen. For a moment, he stood there, staring at nothing in particular, then turned to watch Sasuke. The raven actually smiled at him for a moment before putting on that blank face everyone knew and hated.

"I can't imagine the council is terribly thrilled by this idea..."

Tsunade shrugged and looked out the window. "Lucky for both of us, they had no say in the matter." She paused, then went on. "Mind you, those we did ask said 'no' for personal reasons. A few weren't interested. Neji and his team are helping Gaara right now and won't be back for another year. Shikamaru, the promising one, is expecting his first child with Temari. Not to mention, he is satisfied with his job."

She smiled. "You're the only one without any attachments."

"So, you are out of options?"

"The villagers want one of their own as hokage, Naruto."

He shrugged and tried not speak his mind. If the old woman thought she didn't have a year left to live, she had to be desperate. But even desperation wouldn't let her put the village in the hands of anyone she thought incompetent. That thought alone left a foul taste in his mouth.

"I still don't see how you plan to swing this idea by them. I may no longer be volatile, but there's still the matter of the nine-tailed fox."

She smirked. "Leave those details to me. Are you willing to lay down your life for these people?"

"Yeah," he replied without thinking about it. That much was ingrained in his very bones.

"Then the job's yours." She pointed to a large scroll spread out among all the other piece of paper on his desk. "Sign it and then you and Sasuke have a mission to complete."

He hadn't wanted the position or the honor or the glory, but he wanted to protect—much of his last year had been spent protecting people and caravans along the road—and this village was his home. If the archives were to be believed, his father had lived and died for this place. He could do no less.

With shaking hands, he scrawled his name across the page and then stepped back and looked and Sasuke. "Let's go."

The dark-haired teen smirked. "We're staying the night at the inn."

"Fine, I'll treat you to dinner."

One moment the two were standing in the room and the next gone, swift as any elite soldier. Let none say they weren't strong.


	3. Nighttime Musings

Thank you for the review, first of all. As for being dark, I'm not sure why that happened. It just kind of did...

**Nighttime Musings**

The old woman sat in her sparse office with only a single oil lamp for company and watched the bustling night life of the city below. It was her place of birth, her home, and now, at the end of a very long road, it would become her grave. With a sigh, she turned away from the view and looked about her desk, overflowing with scrolls and books, with papers in need of signing—it was getting late, and the pale-haired lady had no desire to work.

He appeared out of nowhere, as swift as the wind but silent. One moment there were only shadows on the wooden floor, and the next he stood before desk. He wore the same uniform as every other ninja of the village and no mask, with black hair tied back in a pony tail and eyes narrowed.

"Anything to report?" Tsunade asked casually, leaning back in her chair.

He shook his head briefly. "No. We've lost two patrols up north, and I'm hesitant to send more unless I go with them."

"Leave it for now," the hokage said dismissively. "I've sent Sasuke and Naruto to investigate. I suspect this won't pose much trouble for either of them."

"How troublesome," muttered her second-in-command.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "You don't think they can handle it?"

"That's not what worries me," the tactical commander replied with a half-formed smile. "Was there anything else?"

A change of pace would be in order. "Naruto accepted the position."

Dark eyes widened perceptibly. Even to the young ninja, this came as a surprise—he had never pegged the blonde troublemaker as leadership material, though he would trust Naruto with his life, and the life of his unborn child.

"It's not going to be easy for him," Tsunade went on. "I can't order this, so I'm asking you instead. Please keep him out of trouble. I know he can be a handful, but in the coming months, he's going to need all the help he can get."

Shikamaru looked out toward the windows at the night sky above. "What a pain." It sounded almost reassuring.

With a single nod of acknowledgment he left much as he had come, slipping off into the night with no further questions. He didn't need to be told what to do. With a few swift leaps, he landed in front of the tactical command center and stepped briskly inside. Save Shino, who was busy poring over maps of the North, it was empty.

"How'd it go?" asked the bug-boy as he looked up.

The commander picked up his backpack and slung it causally over one shoulder. "He agreed."

"Are you relieved?"

Dark eyes narrowed for a moment. "It's bother, that's for sure."

"Better him than some half-trained newcomer from the water country with no experience," Shino commented, amused for all intents and purposes. With a coat that covered half your face and sunglasses, it was hard to tell.

"A change of plans is in order. Do what you need to do and call the others back."

"How bad do you think it's going to get?"

Shikamaru shrugged. "A change of leaders is always an unstable time, especially in a ninja village. We have maybe two weeks before the formal announcement, but expect plans to be set in motion before then." He waved at the other man. "I'm heading home for the night."

"Say hello to your wife for me."

The commander grinned and left. _If, and only if, she doesn't chuck another bucket at me tonight._

...

"Do we have a plan?" inquired the blond-haired ninja as he downed another bowl of ramen.

Right then, the two of them were sitting in front of Naruto's favorite ramen establishment—the only customers that evening. Sasuke stirred his food around in its bowl, not entirely certain he knew what floated in the muddy soup and not keen on finding out. The blond could talk about ramen for hours, and he wished to avoid _that_ conversation at all costs.

"We stay someplace for the night and leave in the morning," said the raven with a sigh. "If we travel hard, we should reach the first village by sunset tomorrow."

"Is this ghost there?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't think so. She only stayed long enough to assassinate a minor lord in that area before moving on."

"She? You know this person?"

"We met up briefly when I was on my way back to Konoha," came the brief explanation. "Anyway, Shikamaru felt it prudent we check there first since that's where the first murder occurred."

Blue eyes widened. "Is she hot?"

"How should I know, Naruto?"

"Don't you _like_ girls?"

Dark eyes sagged briefly. "Afraid not. What does it have to do with this mission?"

"It doesn't. I was just curious, you know. Last we met, you were a prick with a stick up your ass. I thought you might be completely asexual or something. What? Don't give me that look! It happens!"

Said look was a death glare that might've killed a lesser man. Sasuke shook his head to clear it of confusing thoughts he didn't want to deal with. "From there, we do what we can to track the shadow walker."

"You make it sound almost easy," muttered his blonde companion. "Hey, I meant to ask this afternoon but never did get around to it. Are you doing all right?"

The raven pulled back the collar of his black shirt and showed off what looked to be some kind of seal. The symbols interwoven into its design were not in a language Naruto recognized and they meant nothing to him. Blinking, he moved closer and stared at the seal for a moment longer.

"What is it?"

"Tsunade made it for me, and it's taking me a while to get used to it."

The blonde tilted his head to one side. "What's it for?"

"Chakra suppression." The raven frowned. "Satisfied?"

"Does it hurt?"

It took will power to keep from strangling his pale-haired companion. "Only when I do something well and truly stupid. Now, stop asking, or I will find a way to remove it and burn you into smithereens."

"Uh..." Naruto laughed weakly. "So, anyway, about that place to stay. Any preferences?"

The raven shook his head. "Nope."

"So do you like guys then?" asked the demon-child out of nowhere.

The bowl of ramen on his head might have been an answer, though the blonde didn't want to know what it meant.

...

The Uchiha compound stood as a monument to the stillness of time with only dust to speak for its age. No one lived within these walls anymore; some of the more superstitious village considered the whole area cursed. The only living members of the clan that once inhabited these walls no longer wanted anything to do with it.

Silently, Sasuke stepped into his father's house and tried not to remember but feared to forget as he walked gingerly through the once-familiar halls. There were still blood-stains on the wooden floors and a few of the doors lay on the ground in tatters. It was a murder scene, one in which he had participated twelve years ago.

At the end of one such hall, he stepped into the room that had once belonged to him and glanced about briefly, searching for anything that he might want to keep. He knelt beside a small chest on the far wall and pulled open the lid, setting a cloud of dust aflight. Inside were the trappings of a child, an old knife, paper cranes—things he'd once treasured.

"Boo!" said a familiar voice from the doorway.

"What the hello do you want, Naruto?" Sasuke sounded irritated, but also relieved.

"Why'd you come back here?" asked his companion as he strolled inside. "This place is huge, by the way. I got lost twice just following your foot prints. And it's dusty!"

"The council is planning to demolish the whole area next week."

Naruto nodded and managed to look wise. "Ah. Is that why you came back in the first place? Before the old granny roped you into helping her with this ghost."

"Yeah."

Sasuke rose and dusted off his clothes, already regretting his decision to come here. What little his parents had of value had been taken from the building shortly after the slaughter, and what remained now had only sentimental value. Stepping past the blonde, he moved on, into another room much like the previous one. Itachi had inhabited it once, the innocent traitor.

Someone had left graffiti on the walls, the paint long since dry. "Murderer," it read in flowing script. A hand wrapped around his shoulders as Naruto gently steered him in another direction. Resisting an urge to shrug him off, the dark-haired teen sighed.

"You have to let me do this."

"You don't need to be here," insisted the blue-eyed man. "You're stirring up old ghosts, but it's said and done now. Whatever happened between you and your brother is in the past, where it damn well belongs!"

"It used to be my home, Naruto."

The hand pushed him onwards, out of the house and into the street. "Then come here by the light of day. I'm not blind, Sasuke, nor stupid."

Exasperated, the raven single nodded. "Fine, let's go back to bed."

"We have a job to do tomorrow," Naruto affirmed.

...

_Author: I slightly rewrote the chapter after sleeping on it for a night. No major changes, but I think it flows a little better now, slightly less choppy._


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